I chronicle nonsense, mostly about the news, sometimes about pop culture. If you don't think it's nonsensical, then yell at me in the comments.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

#BlackLivesMatter Shows How #WhitenessSoFragile

The United States had a very
tumultuous week last week. The deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, the
five Dallas police officers, the #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations that emerged
from the events, the chaos of some of those demonstrations, the calls for
people to “act more like Martin Luther King” have all brought about something
that has been apparent for a while, but no one seemed to realize.

#WhitenessSoFragile

Since the birth of whiteness, it
was a very unstable construct. It came about around the time people had to
justify why they could go to entire different countries and murder and/or
enslave the citizens of those lands, take all of their shiny things, on-point
fashion, and tasty foods, and still sleep at night, knowing that their beds were
soaking in indigenous blood. So how could one do this to people and still in
good conscience call oneself a “good Christian”? By making fragile whiteness.
Blackness became a thing you could be, and one’s blackness made them less than
human. “Mongoloid” and “Negroid” and “Caucasoid” were actually scientific
terms. Keep in mind that phrenology was a science, too. Now it only exists as one
of the Roots’ most slept on LPs.

Whiteness prevailed for quite a
while. The Dutch were especially ruthless with their whiteness (I’m looking at
you, King Leopold I), but the Spanish and Portuguese did a pretty good job of
waving their whiteness around too. The UK used it the most, though. There are
only about 20 countries in the world that had not been occupied or invaded by
Britain. Hell, you’re reading this in English! Their whiteness game was on
FLEEK!

Whiteness has been used as a
cudgel and a standard for what is right or better. To this day, Indians are
buying up skin whiteners. East Asians are having their epicanthic folds removed
or altered to “round” their eyes. Black people are still buying products that
literally burn them to straighten their hair to look more “professional”.
3-inch long “white” hair in the office? Totally fine. 3-inch long black hair in
the office? Getting a fucking haircut, Johnson. This isn’t a record label.

Even at its peak, you could tell
#WhitenessSoFragile, though. White people spent their time trying to prove that
OTHER white people weren’t white. African-descended peoples weren’t the only ones
“scientifically” equated with apes. The Irish suffered this indignity as well.
So did the Scottish, Germans, Greeks, Italians, Polish, French (Yes! The
FRENCH!, and pretty much anyone who wasn’t English or Dutch. How fragile is
your construct of European-American superiority when you try to not let OTHER
European-Americans join your club?

Today in America,
#WhitenessSoFragile is manifesting in the vitriolic way that people respond to
anything having to do with another ethnicity advocating for itself or taking
pride in itself. People call the NAACP racist because they claim it’s the
National Association for the Advancement of COLORED People, and not all people,
ignoring the fact that the NAACP was founded but both black and white people,
and never excluded anyone. When Black History Month became more popular,
fragile whites would complain, “Why isn’t there a WHITE History Month? Black
History Month is racist!”, completely ignoring that there was no legitimate
history of black people in America in public schools since the inception of public
schools, which is ironic, because not only did America benefit from free labor
from blacks to build the superpower that they are today, those first schoolhouses
were likely built by black slaves.

Those white tears do taste scrumptious,
though…

#WhitenessSoFragile reared its tear-stained head after Jesse Williams spoke
at the BET Awards. 95% of his speech was about America as a whole and directed
toward black people specifically. He mentioned the word “whiteness” once, and
people initiated a petition to have him fired, because their fee-fees got hurt.
How fragile is your social construct when you will complain about something not
about you, broadcast on a channel that you probably NEVER WATCHED IN YOUR LIFE?

#WhitenessSoFragile manifests
itself in the nerd and geek world all the time as well. Mention how Marvel has
a black Spider-Man, and watch a white male talk about how his childhood has
been ruined because of it. You’ll get the same response when you discuss the
black Wally West, the new black woman Iron Man, the Asian Hulk, the Pakistani Ms. Marvel, Zendaya Mary-Jane, or any other
transracial superhero icon. I’m sure that when John Stewart Green Lantern come
on the scene in 1972, there was a young Bull Connor type lamenting about
how this is the end of comics and his silly little life. White fragility often
coincides with #MasculinitySoFragile, as exemplified by the response to Jane
Foster Thor, Captain Marvel’s newest non-bathing suit costume, and the
all-woman Ghostbusters movie. The tears look and taste the same: DELICIOUS.

#WhitenessSoFragile is often
defended with the same rubber/glue defense. When Steve King tried to lobby to
keep Andrew Jackson on the $20 note, the cornerstone of his argument was that
changing to Harriet Tubman was racist and sexist. Only in the sad, paranormal
world of Fragile Whiteness would switching from the face of a mass murdering
slave owner who probably beat his wife to a that of woman who freed hundreds of
slaves and led battles against the confederacy be considered “racist” or “sexist”.
The rubber/glue defense didn’t work in elementary school, and it doesn’t work
now. It actually shows how infantile people can be about their flimsily
constructed norm.

People mischaracterizing the
#BlackLivesMatter movement as anything but a new chapter in the long-running
Civil Rights Movement shows how #WhitenessSoFragile. Here’s a fun parlour
trick: ask anyone who says that #BLM is only about black people* if they were
vocal when Dylan Noble or Zachary Hammond or Amanda Steele died. When they ask
you, “Who?”, you will immediately see an anthropomorphic frog drinking iced tea.
Most of the time, Fragile Whiteness will claim that the #BLM needs to take a
page from Martin Luther King’s book and stage peaceful protests that don’t
obstruct people’s day to day lives, and stop messing with people’s livelihoods
with their student protests and blocking of thoroughfares and boycotting of
venues. If #BLM were to emulate Dr. King, then they would be doing exactly what
they are doing. MLK led public protests and blocked major thoroughfares and
encouraged boycotting venues. #WhitenessSoFragile has a very negative affect on
memory, so much so that it has turned “be more like MLK” into the modern, “Why don’t
you be a good negro and keep your head down?”.

#AllLivesMatter isn’t just the corollary
counter to #BlackLivesMatter as #NotAllMen is to #YesAllWomen. It is a product
of #WhitenessSoFragile. If Fragile Whiteness weren’t so fragile, then it would
not be so quick to reassert itself into a conversation in such a defensive
posture. Seriously, we get it. All lives DO matter. You just need to remember
that when certain people say “All Lives Matter” but then demonize black and
female victims of crime to justify why a white guy did it, they think that all
lives matter as much as Thomas Jefferson meant all lives matter when he said
that “all men are born with certain unalienable rights”, even though he
deliberately excluded women, owned black slaves, and was a virulent homophobe.

“This political correctness is
getting out of hand” is #WhitenessSoFragile for, “Wahhh! I have to respect
other people and their lives! They’re calling me on my bullshit!” It is fun to
mock, but be careful. As fragile as Whiteness is, it is still very volatile and
can still kill. There are families in South Carolina, Santa Barbara, Colorado,
Sandy Hook who can attest to the dangers of Fragile Whiteness. That is still
not going to stop me from pointing out examples of #WhitenessSoFragile when I
see it. I'm just going to be a little bit more vigilant about it.